Doctor Who: Time and The Rani DVD
The Rani has taken control of the planet Lakertya and forced the peaceful Lakertyans to build a rocket silo-cum laboratory base into a cliff face. She is aided by the Tetraps, a race of bat-like creatures, and plans to fire a rocket loaded with loyhargil, a substance with the same properties as strange matter, at an asteroid completely composed of the latter.
As a preliminary to this she has created a huge artificial brain and kidnapped a number of geniuses – Including Pasteur and Einstein from Earth – to imbue it with the ability first to identify and then to calculate the correct way to create loyhargil for her in the laboratory. The newly-regenerated Doctor and Mel must stop her and save the planet…
Special Features Include : Commentaries, Behind the Scenes, Makings of, Photo Gallery, Storyboards and Subtitles
Release date: 13/09/2010
Original VHS cover and wording
After an attack by the evil Rani, the TARDIS crash-lands on the desolate planet of Lakertya. On the floor of the console room, the Doctor begins his sixth regeneration…
In his post-regenerative confusion, the Doctor is separated from his young companion Mel and tricked into assisting the Rani in her megalomanic scheme to construct a giant time manipulator.
Lost on the barren surface of the planet, Mel has to avoid the Rani’s ingenious traps and her monstrous, bat-like servants, the Tetraps. She joins forces with a rebel faction among the Lakertyans, desperate to end the Rani’s control of their planet.
The Doctor must recover his wits in time to avoid becoming a permanent part of the Rani’s insane plan to drain the genius of the greatest scientific minds in the Universe.
Originally transmitted 7 September 1987 to 28 September 1987.
STARRING
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Me/), Kate O’Mara (The Rani), Mark Greenstreet (Ikona), Wanda Ventham (Faroon), Donald Pickering (Beyus), Richard
Gauntlett (Urak), Karen Clegg (Sam), John Segal (Lanisha), Peter Tuddenham, Jack! Webb (Voices)
PRODUCTION
Pip and Jane Baker (writers),
Geoff Powell (designer),
Keff McCulloch (incidental music),
Andrew Cartmel (script editor),
John Nathan-Turner (producer)
Andrew Morgan (director).
Interesting facts for the original VHS release…
Time and the Ran/ features the first appearance of Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor. The previous incumbent, Colin Baker, was unavailable to record a regeneration sequence, so McCoy wore a curly blond wig and the Sixth Doctor’s costume in the pre-credits sequence, his face distorted by a video effect.
Among the costumes seen in the TARDIS wardrobe were items of clothing worn by the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors.
Some scenes were recorded with Sylvester McCoy wearing his glasses but after some debate it was decided this was inappropriate and the sequences were replaced in the final version. The actor’s short-sightedness occasionally caused problems during recording.
The working title for the story was Strange Matter, named after the material the Rani is attempting to duplicate. The substitute material is called loyhargil – an anagram of ‘Holy Grail’
The “regeneration” from the 6th to 7th Doctor..
Filed under: Classic Series dvd's, Classic individual releases, DVD
Posted by Tim M on August 18th, 2010
I watched ‘Time and the Rani’ again recently (on VHS) and surprisingly I actually enjoyed it. McCoy’s 7th Dr is enjoyable to watch, he does play it a bit slapstick at times, but is nonetheless quite entertaining. Kate O Mara is great again as the Rani, plus the Tetraps aren’t bad monsters for their time (1987). I even find Langford’s Mel bearable. Oh and It’s well directed to. But for nostalgic reasons I like it. I was only 10 when it was first transmitted and I greatly enjoyed the story then. Time and the Rani 7/10
Posted by king gerbil on August 16th, 2010
looks wkd 
Posted by fez’s are cool on August 11th, 2010
been looking forward to this release for a while gotta love the 7th doctor. regards to river song being the rani i find very unlikely, i believe she is a creation of the daleks like bracewell was, we never saw her actually kill that dalek in the big bang did we
Posted by Felix on August 11th, 2010
i might get this as the cover looks cool and the rani will return becuz i think river song is the rani ps i might get the mark of the rani as well becuz i heard that is a really good story
Posted by alex on August 11th, 2010
on the dvd cover
the tetrap looks cute
[well not like the one on the video at least]
Posted by Dave on August 10th, 2010
not as good as the mark of the rani,i think rani WILL return because i believe riversong is the rani.
Posted by Anonymous on August 10th, 2010
I like this one
Posted by ben on August 10th, 2010
i think it looks good i am going get it 
Posted by alex on August 10th, 2010
the covers quiet nice
Posted by who crazy! on August 10th, 2010
Ive watched this story before and its rubbish!
Posted by AlphaOmega on August 10th, 2010
harry doolan: That’s only because Colin Baker didn’t wanna do it.
Posted by harry doolan on July 30th, 2010
the regeneration is bad!!!!!!!! the 6th doctor is realy sylvester in a wig!
which was very poor
Posted by Steven on June 9th, 2010
I have mixed feelings about this story. The regeneration is lousy, but I absolutely adore the Rani impersonating Mel, the squeaky voice Kate O’Mara puts on is very funny. The Rani’s globe-traps are really cool. But the Tetraps are not so good, especially the toungue effect. And maybe there’s a liitle to much screaming from Bonnie?
Posted by Sontar 7 on May 31st, 2010
Is this a good story? I’ve heard cliches that it’s terrible but is it actually?
Posted by booboo on May 25th, 2010
yes We will have a release schedule shortly where things have been announced but full details not given This is one of them
Posted by alex on May 25th, 2010
this page is a bit small 
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